The world resurgence of Islam after
World War II gave Muslims in the Philippines a
stronger sense of unity as a religious community
than they had in the past. Since the early 1970s,
the number of Muslim teachers visiting the country
and Filipino Muslims traveling abroad—either on the
Hajj or on scholarships—has increased to
unprecedented levels. As a result, Muslims have
built many new mosques and religious schools, where
students (male and female) learn the basic rituals
and principles of Islam and learn to read the
Qur'an in
Arabic. A number of Muslim institutions of
higher learning, such as the
Jamiatul Philippine al-Islamia
in
Marawi, also offer advanced courses in Islamic
studies.

The periods following the demise of
the Prophet Muhammad - led to the expansion of Islam
to Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. In Southeast
Asia, Islam was promulgated by three methods: by
Muslim traders in the course of peaceful trade; by
preachers and holy men who set out from India and
Arabia specifically to convert idolaters and animist
and increase the knowledge of the faithful; and by
war waged against heathen states.

Trading served as a strong factors
in spreading Islam in Southeast Asia, with Muslim
merchants interested not only in the commercial
aspects of life, but in the spiritual as well,
providing Islamic knowledge to the uniformed through
religious missions.

It was in North Sumatra that the
trade route from India and the west reached the
archipelago, and Islam first obtained a firm footing
in Southeast Asia. Malacca , the main trading center
of the area in the 15th century, became the great
stronghold of the faith, from where it spread out.
In the 10th century, Islam's influence intensified
and reached as far as ancient Malaysia. This in turn
would affect its growth in what would become The
Philippines.

The strength of the Sulu sultanate
in the early 14th was enhanced by Malay leaders who
helped the natives in political, economic, and
religious developments. Among others, Rajah Baguinda,
a Sumatrans prince, came to the Philippines in 1390
with a group of men, all learned in Islam. They
settled in Buwansa, which became the first capital
of the sultanate of Sulu, and Abubakhar his
son-in-law became the first sultan.

The early missionaries who came to
the Philippines were guided by Islamic principles of
no religious compulsion, thus the gradual and
liberal promulgation of Islam. Known as Mukhdumin,
these missionaries did not mean to conquer the
territories or exploit its inhabitants but to teach,
and guide people to the right path.

Paramount among them was Rajah
Baguinda, followed by his son-in-law Sharieful
Hashim, who served as the first sultan of Sulu.
Afterestablishing a community and assuming
leadership doctrines on tawhid(Monotheism) to
eradicate polytheism, animism and idolatry.

Islam gives the Philippines Muslim
their life meaning and direction. The concept of
monotheism does not only enlighten them on the
absolute oneness of God, but emphasizes to them the
quality of an Ummah(Islamic Nation) described by the
Holy Qur'an, as a single nation (21:92)
characterized by a fraternal bond binding all its
members together. It accentuates the brotherhood of
man and the kinship of Muslim. Their adherence to
the Islamic faith changed the destiny of their
fragmented society to a Bangsa Tungga (Single
Nation), the Islamic Ummah. This Cesar Majul
explains thus: "It becomes clearly demonstrated that
what gave the Muslims in the Philippines their
cohesion and sense of community was Islam. It was
Islam that institutionalized their loyalty to their
Sultans, gave them a system of writing, sanctioned
their attempts to resist alien rule, and gave a
religious character to their patriotism."

Two century before the coming of
Western colonizers to the Philippines, the Muslim
enjoyed full independence, and had a well-organized
government, the sultanate, which attained various
achievements at the height of its power. The sultan
served as both political and religious leaders,
protector and defender of Islam, following the
Islamic political system of no separation between
church and state. As a religious leader, the sultan
was called Zillullah fil-ard, shadow of God in
earth, based on the Islamic political point a view
that man, particularly a leader, is the vice0regent
of God.

With the coming of the Spaniards and
the Americans, the Bangsa Islam declined. Both
colonial powers incorporated the independent Bangsa
Islam into the Philippines state, reducing the power
of the sultan, especially during the American
regime.

The Muslim courageously resisted the
Spanish conquistadors, but it cost them in terms of
socioeconomic development, which remained almost at
zero level because of the constant wars. While the
natives of the Visayas and Luzon easily succumbed to
the Spaniards, the Muslim continued to defend their
Bangsa, tau, iban, agama (Nation, People, and
Religion).

Spain resorted to massive propaganda
to win the war, one weapon of which was religious
nationalism. Its religious introduced Christianity
as the only true religion , with Islam therefore "a
false religion". This outraged the Muslim, who
became more determined to fight, thus the resistance
in the name of jihad (holy war) with the battle cry:
Kamatay sampay kamaharhikaan (Death until victory is
Achieved).

Another type of propaganda the
Spaniards used was name-calling. Instead of calling
the Islamic people of Mindanao Muslims, they named
them Moros, with negative connotations of being
pirates, juramentados, repulsive, sinister, and the
like.

Incredibly, Muslims in the
Philippines intermittently apply the term Moro as
the rallying point for unification of the different
linguistic communities that profess Islam. The idea
is to consolidate those different tribes into one
body or nation that would formulate a common stand
against any force that tried to subjugate and
exploit their country, people, and natural
resources.

From Spanish colonization up to the
American regime and the present, the Moros have
remained faithful to Islam. Whenever they feel that
external presences and exploitation are hanging over
their heads, their only alternative is to develop
the internal factor, religious consciousness. Islam,
which preaches Jihad when there is imminent danger
of religious proselytization and colonization, has
made them stand firm to defend their faith. This
deepening Islamic awareness has become the
mobilizing factor that fuses the different Moro
tribes into bangsa tunggal (a single nation) as part
of the Islamic universal concept of ummah Islamiah,
the main tenet of which is the brotherhood of Muslim
all over the world. Thus the problem of one Bangsa
is the quandary of all the Ummah.

When other Muslim states come to
their rescue, it is not a matter of intervention in
sovereignty and territorial integrity, but a
religious duty.

The Muslims in the Philippines can
be key factors in the establishment of a cordial
relationship, better understanding and an esprit de
corps with the Muslim world. The Filipino Muslims'
existence as part of the Muslim ummah is not in the
context of a minority, but in that of a far reaching
spread of citizenry who dwell in a single nation and
have an unshakable affinity, the Islamic brotherhood
(ukhywwah Islamayah), comparable to an edifice in
which each part of the structure reinforces all
others.

Islam is one of the oldest organized
religions to be established in the Philippines. Its
origins in the country may be dated back to as early
as the 15th century, with the arrival of Arab and
Malay muslim traders who converted some of the
native inhabitants of the islands. Muslims in the
country form 5 percent of the national population.

The Philippine territory was under
Islamic rule when the Spaniards arrived and
colonized it. Magellan was killed by a Muslim
chieftain. Manila (May nilad )was originally Islamic
until Miguel López de Legazpi conquered it.
Intramoros means Among the moors. The Filipino word
moro comes from the Spanish word for the inhabitants
of Morroco. A tenacious Islamic legacy is the custom
to circumsize('tuli'). When the Spaniards arrived,
circumsicion was justified as being Christian. Being
uncircumsized is considered shameful in Filipino
society.

In the early 1990s, Filipino Muslims
were firmly rooted in their Islamic faith. Every
year many went on the hajj (pilgrimage) to the holy
city of Mecca; on return men would be addressed by
the honoritic "hajj" and women the honorific
"hajji". In most Muslim communities, there was at
least one mosque from which the muezzin called the
faithful to prayer five times a day. Those who
responded to the call to public prayer removed their
shoes before entering the mosque, aligned themselves
in straight rows before the minrab (niche), and
offered prayers in the direction of Mecca. An imam,
or prayer leader, led the recitation in Arabic
verses from the Quran, following the practices of
the Sunni sect of Islam common to most of the Muslim
world. It was sometimes said that the Moros often
neglected to perform the ritual prayer and did not
strictly abide by the fast (no food or drink in
daylight hours) during Ramadan, the ninth month of
the Muslim calendar, or perform the duty of
almsgiving. They did, however, scrupulously observe
other rituals and practices and celebrate great
festivals of Islam such as the end of Ramadan;
Muhammad's birthday; the night of his ascension to
heaven; and the start of the Muslim New Year, the
first day of the month of Muharram.

Islam in the Philippines has
absorbed indigenous elements, much as has
Catholicism. Moros thus make offerings to spirits
(diwatas), malevolent or benign, believing that such
spirits can and will have an effect on one's health,
family, and crops. They also include pre-Islamic
customs in ceremonies marking rites of
passage--birth, marriage, and death. Moros share the
essentials of Islam, but specific practices vary
from one Moro group to another. Although Muslim
Filipino women are required to stay at the back of
the mosque for prayers (out of the sight of men),
they are much freer in daily life than are women in
many other Islamic societies.

Because of the world resurgence of
Islam since World War II, Muslims in the Philippines
have a stronger sense of their unity as a religious
community than they had in the past. Since the early
1970s, more Muslim teachers have visited the nation
and more Philippine Muslims have gone abroad--either
on the hajj or on scholarships--to Islamic centers
than ever before. They have returned revitalized in
their faith and determined to strengthen the ties of
their fellow Moros with the international Islamic
community. As a result, Muslims have built many new
mosques and religious schools, where students (male
and female) learn the basic rituals and principles
of Islam and learn to read the Quran in Arabic. A
number of Muslim institutions of higher learning,
such as the Jamiatul Philippine al-Islamia in
Marawi, also offer advanced courses in Islamic
studies.

Divisions along generational lines
have emerged among Moros since the 1960s. Many young
Muslims, dissatisfied with the old leaders, asserted
that datu and sultans were unnecessary in modern
Islamic society. Among themselves, these young
reformers were divided between moderates, working
within the system for their political goals, and
militants, engaging in guerrilla-style warfare. To
some degree, the government managed to isolate the
militants, but Muslim reformers, whether moderates
or militants, were united in their strong religious
adherence. This bond was significant, because the
Moros felt threatened by the continued expansion of
Christians into southern Mindanao and by the
prolonged presence of Philippine army troops in
their homeland.

Muslims, about 5 percent of the
total population, were the most significant minority
in the Philippines. Although undifferentiated
racially from other Filipinos, in the 1990s they
remained outside the mainstream of national life,
set apart by their religion and way of life. In the
1970s, in reaction to consolidation of central
government power under martial law, which began in
1972, the Muslim Filipino, or Moro population
increasingly identified with the worldwide Islamic
community, particularly in Malaysia, Indonesia,
Libya, and Middle Eastern countries. Longstanding
economic grievances stemming from years of
governmental neglect and from resentment of popular
prejudice against them contributed to the roots of
Muslim insurgency.

Moros were confined almost entirely
to the southern part of the country--southern and
western Mindanao, southern Palawan, and the Sulu
Archipelago. Ten subgroups could be identified on
the basis of language. Three of these groups made up
the great majority of Moros. They were the
Maguindanaos of North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and
Maguindanao provinces; the Maranaos of the two Lanao
provinces; and the Tausugs, principally from Jolo
Island. Smaller groups were the Samals and Bajaus,
principally of the Sulu Archipelago; the Yakans of
Zamboanga del Sur Province; the Ilanons and Sangirs
of Southern Mindanao Region; the Melabugnans of
southern Palawan; and the Jama Mapuns of the tiny
Cagayan Islands.

Muslim Filipinos traditionally have
not been a closely knit or even allied group. They
were fiercely proud of their separate identities,
and conflict between them was endemic for centuries.
In addition to being divided by different languages
and political structures, the separate groups also
differed in their degree of Islamic orthodoxy. For
example, the Tausugs, the first group to adopt
Islam, criticized the more recently Islamicized
Yakan and Bajau peoples for being less zealous in
observing Islamic tenets and practices. Internal
differences among Moros in the 1980s, however, were
outweighed by commonalities of historical experience
vis-à-vis non-Muslims and by shared cultural,
social, and legal traditions.

The traditional structure of Moro
society focused on a sultan who was both a secular
and a religious leader and whose authority was
sanctioned by the Quran. The datu were communal
leaders who measured power not by their holdings in
landed wealth but by the numbers of their followers.
In return for tribute and labor, the datu provided
aid in emergencies and advocacy in disputes with
followers of another chief. Thus, through his agama
(court--actually an informal dispute-settling
session), a datu became basic to the smooth function
of Moro society. He was a powerful authority figure
who might have as many as four wives and who might
enslave other Muslims in raids on their villages or
in debt bondage. He might also demand revenge
(maratabat) for the death of a follower or upon
injury to his pride or honor.

The datu continued to play a central
role in Moro society in the 1980s. In many parts of
Muslim Mindanao, they still administered the sharia
(sacred Islamic law) through the agama. They could
no longer expand their circle of followers by
raiding other villages, but they achieved the same
end by accumulating wealth and then using it to
provide aid, employment, and protection for less
fortunate neighbors. Datu support was essential for
government programs in a Muslim barangay. Although a
datu in modern times rarely had more than one wife,
polygamy was permitted so long as his wealth was
sufficient to provide for more than one. Moro
society was still basically hierarchical and
familial, at least in rural areas.

The national government policies
instituted immediately after independence in 1946
abolished the Bureau for Non-Christian Tribes used
by the United States to deal with minorities and
encouraged migration of Filipinos from densely
settled areas such as Central Luzon to the "open"
frontier of Mindanao. By the l950s, hundreds of
thousands of Ilongos, Ilocanos, Tagalogs, and others
were settling in North Cotabato and South Cotabato
and Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur provinces,
where their influx inflamed Moro hostility. The crux
of the problem lay in land disputes. Christian
migrants to the Cotabatos, for example, complained
that they bought land from one Muslim only to have
his relatives refuse to recognize the sale and
demand more money. Muslims claimed that Christians
would title land through government agencies unknown
to Muslim residents, for whom land titling was a new
institution. Distrust and resentment spread to the
public school system, regarded by most Muslims as an
agency for the propagation of Christian teachings.
By 1970, a terrorist organization of Christians
called the
Ilagas (Rats) began operating in the Cotabatos,
and Muslim armed bands, called Blackshirts, appeared
in response. The same thing happened in the Lanaos,
where the Muslim Barracudas began fighting the
Ilagas. Philippine army troops sent in to
restore peace and order were accused by Muslims of
siding with the Christians. When martial law was
declared in 1972, Muslim Mindanao was in turmoil.

The Philippine government discovered
shortly after independence that there was a need for
some kind of specialized agency to deal with the
Muslim minority and so set up the Commission for
National Integration in 1957, which was later
replaced by the Office of Muslim Affairs and
Cultural Communities. Filipino nationalists
envisioned a united country in which Christians and
Muslims would be offered economic advantages and the
Muslims would be assimilated into the dominant
culture. They would simply be Filipinos who had
their own mode of worship and who refused to eat
pork. This vision, less than ideal to many
Christians, was generally rejected by Muslims who
feared that it was a euphemistic equivalent of
assimilation. Concessions were made to Muslim
religion and customs. Muslims were exempted from
Philippine laws prohibiting polygamy and divorce,
and in 1977 the government attempted to codify
Muslim law on personal relationships and to
harmonize Muslim customary law with Philippine law.
A significant break from past practice was the 1990
establishment of the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao, which gave Muslims in the region control
over some aspects of government, but not over
national security and foreign affairs.

There were social factors in the
early 1990s that militated against the cultural
autonomy sought by Muslim leaders. Industrial
development and increased migration outside the
region brought new educational demands and new roles
for women. These changes in turn led to greater
assimilation and, in some cases, even intermarriage.
Nevertheless, Muslims and Christians generally
remained distinct societies often at odds with one
another.

Bangsamoro

Bangsamoro is the name of the area
claimed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
in the Philippines. The MILF seeks to establish an
independent Islamic state in the southern
Philippines. Bangsamoro covers the provinces of
Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Cotabato, South
Cotabato. Davao del Sur, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat,
Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Basilan,
Sulu, Tawi-Tawi. It also includes the southern
portion of the province of Palawan.

The term Bangsamoro also refers to
the Filipino Muslim people, in general. These
include the Tausug and the Maguindanaoans.

The term Bangsamoro comes from the
Malay word bangsa, meaning nation or people, and the
Spanish word moro, from the older Spanish word Moor,
the Reconquista-period term for Arabs or Muslims.

Moro Rebellion

The Moro Rebellion was the second
phase of the Philippine-American War, following the
so-called Philippine Insurrection phase. After the
capture of Philippine patriot Emilio Aguinaldo and
the surrender of the majority of Philippine forces
on Luzon, many regions remained beyond the control
of the American forces. In spite of the announcement
of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 that the
Philippines had been subdued, sporadic fighting
continued in many areas.

The southern area of the Philippine
Islands continued to resist strenuously. With great
difficulty, American forces gained control over the
remainder of the Philippine Islands, particularly
the moslem (Moro) island centered on Mindanao. The
Moro Rebellion did not abate until 1913, when the
American government promised the eventual
independence of the country.

Modern Muslim inhabitants of the
southern Philippines see the Moro Rebellion as one
phase of a continuing struggle against outside
influences, the Spanish, the Americans, and the
central government of the Philippines.

Practices

Circumcision

Circumcision is practiced throughout the
Philippines due to the influence of Islam. A strong
Islamic legacy has been left behind in the custom to
circumcise (pagtutuli or, simply tuli,
in
Filipino) young boys. (Note: Circumcision is not
mentioned in the
Koran, but is mentioned in
Hadith and considered an important
Sunnah.) When the
Spaniards arrived, circumcision was justified as
being
Christian. To this day, being uncircumcised is
stigmatized in
Philippine society. Even to non-Muslim
Filipinos, it is considered effeminate to be
uncircumcised (Filipino: supot), and one
isn't considered a "full man" unless he is
circumcised.[citation
needed]

Observance

Every year, many Filipino Muslims go
on a
pilgrimage (hajj)
to the holy city of
Mecca; upon returning men are bestowed with the
honorific title "hajji" and women the honorific "hajja".
In most Muslim communities, there is at least one
mosque from which the
muezzin call the faithful to prayer five times a
day. Those who respond to the call to public prayer
follow Muslim custom in removing their shoes before
entering the
Mosque, aligning themselves in straight rows
before the minbar (niche), and offering prayers in
the direction of
Mecca. An Imam, or prayer leader, leads the
recitation in Arabic verses from the
Qur'an, following the
practices of
the
Sunni sect of Islam common to most of the world.

Moros, who comprise most of the Muslim
population in
Mindanao, are observant regarding performing the
ritual prayer and have strictly abided by the
fast (no food or drink in daylight hours) during
Ramadan, or performed the duty of almsgiving[citation
needed]. They also observe other
rituals and practices and celebrate Islamic
festivals such as the end of Ramadan (Eid
ul-Fitr);
Muhammad's birthday; the night of his ascension
to heaven; and the start of the Muslim New Year, the
first day of the month of
Muharram.